Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has warned that external interventions could worsen the country’s security challenges.
He told Nigerian leaders to be careful in accepting foreign assistance.
Soyinka gave the warning on Friday at the Government House in Makurdi, shortly after a closed-door meeting with his host Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State.
Soyinka recalled that during the last federal administration, the state was a hub for terrorists in the North Central region, but praised Alia’s developmental strides.
He accused former President Muhammadu Buhari of failing to stop the killings, adding that he challenged the administration’s policies.
Soyinka said he was in Benue to follow up on educational materials he donated during an earlier visit when many displaced children were out of school.
The Noble Laurette later inspected ongoing projects the Alia administration is executing and also visited several internally displaced persons (IDP) camps to sympathise with the affected families.
Meanwhile, Alia has refuted claims of him denying the killings of Benue residents by bandits and terrorists, saying his earlier comments were misinterpreted and taken out of context.
He said it was necessary the public should understand the proper context and global meaning of terms such as genocide, adding that discussions around genocide must be based on the United Nations’ definition and historical context
According to the governor, many people use the word loosely without considering its origin, interpretation or the criteria that qualify an event as genocide.
Alia said his earlier remarks about attackers “executing their plans religiously” was an idiomatic expression similar to someone saying a task was carried out judiciously, meaning consistently and not in any religious sense, adding that the misinterpretation of his statement caused unnecessary confusion.
“I never denied that my people were not killed. I remain very firm that we have bandits and terrorists who come fully organised to destroy, maim and kill. I have consistently, yes, religiously stated that their aim is land grabbing. This did not begin as anything religious,” he said.
Alia recalled that the crisis began as farmer-herder conflicts before escalating into full-scale banditry and terrorism, adding that people from different faiths and backgrounds have suffered losses.
He, therefore, clarified that attempts to frame the killings as religiously motivated were misleading and harmful.
The governor advised journalists against politicising the tragedy or amplifying misinterpretations, urging the media to seek clarification whenever issues arise rather than worsening tensions through inaccurate interpretations.
